You have read that inorganic fertilizers contribute to water pollution and would

Question

You have read that inorganic fertilizers contribute to water pollution and would like to make a switch from inorganic fertilizers to organic compost in your vegetable garden. A friend graciously gives you a truck load of his compost. As a good researcher and critical thinker you are not convinced that organic compost will yield the same results as the inorganic fertilizer you have used for years with good results. To draw your own conclusion based on scientific evidence you decide to conduct an experiment in your garden. State a good hypothesis, design an experiment (include test subjects, sample size, control(s), dependent and independent variables, type of data collected) and hypothetical results/conclusion. Does your conclusion support the hypothesis?

Explanation / Answer

Experiment: Effect of organic and inorganic fertilizer on growth, yield, and fruit quality of tomatoes

Hypothesis to be tested: Organic fertilizers will have a more positive benefit than inorganic fertilizers or no fertilizers

Materials and methods: The experiment will be conducted in green house. The experiment will be laid out in the form of plots with three replication of each treatment.

1st Plot: organic fertilizer (compost)

2nd Plot: Inorganic fertilizer

3rd Plot: No fertilizer application (control)

Except the fertilizer treatment, rest all parameters (soil, irrigation, etc) will be kept constant in all the three plots. Normal routine field activities will be followed on each plot i.e. weeding, pest control etc.

Result:

Conclusion:

Organic fertilizers contains minerals that improve the physical properties of soil, provides space for gas movement, root growth, and drainage. Thus organic fertilizers provides not only a variety of nutrients but add the most important constituent of the soil i.e. humus. Humus provides excellent substrate for plant growth. The tomatoes obtained from Plot 1 were exceptionally healthy, and heavier than the other two treatments.

            On the other hand, inorganic fertilizers provide an instantaneous source of soil nutrients. The dose of inorganic fertilizers needs to be formulated for a particular kind of soil and plant type. Another factor about inorganic fertilizers is that if they run off into water resources, they may prove detrimental on the health of living beings.

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